Multidisciplinary Approach Needed to Study Inner Solar System Says Brown University Professor
Brown University Professor Jim Head forcefully argued for a more integrated approach to studying the Sun, the Earth and other planets in the inner solar system today at a meeting of a panel of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Planetary Science Decadal Survey.
Dr. Head described the multidisciplinary approach that should be employed in studying other planets in the inner solar system and Earth itself, called comparative planetology, and emphasized that the importance of the Sun’s role in planetary evolution not be overlooked. He explained that Earth scientists look at Earth as a planet but not as part of the family of planets that form the inner solar system. Similarly, planetary scientists who study the inner solar system – Mercury, Venus, the Earth, the Moon and Mars – do not focus on the science of Earth itself. A collective approach is needed where scientists studying all the planetary bodies in the inner solar system, including Earth, collaborate along with heliophysicists who study the Sun.
In his presentation, he said “Mars may be the true Rosetta Stone of early Earth history, filling in the missing transition” and that the Moon is a record of the first half of solar system formation. He called upon professional societies such as the American Geophysical Union (AGU), in particular, to strive to include multidisciplinary panels at their meetings. “We need to talk to each other,” he said.
He spoke at a meeting of the Inner Planets panel, one of five panels meeting under the aegis of the NRC’s Planetary Science Decadal Survey. The meeting continues tomorrow. Two other panels met this week, and two more will meet in early September.
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